The Pizza Effect, Tenjinyama Artist Studios, Sapporo

The Pizza Effect is not burning the roof of your mouth with hot cheese.

The phrase 'the Pizza Effect' was inspired by the changing attitude which Italians have towards pizza. Originally pizza was thought of as a low-class Southern Italian food. But many rural Italians immigrated to America and took their food culture with them.

Once in America, this pizza culture grew and became a legitimate part of Italian food culture. The new pizza concept returned to Italy and the idea of pizza was re-evaluated and embraced by the Italian Nation.

The Pizza Effect is the result of the free-flow of people and ideas around the globe. Since the Meiji restoration, Japan has taken in new influences from the outside world as well as enriching the world with Japanese ideas.

The Pizza Effect is very obvious in artist residencies. Artists from overseas are attracted to elements of Japanese culture, so they visit Japan to learn more about Japanese culture. They in turn make artworks in response to what they have learned about Japanese culture, the local Japanese community attends exhibitions and performances put on by these foreigners. Japanese audiences either learn about a new element of Japanese culture they have never heard of or are treated to a very embarrassing mutation of Japanese culture. What a strange situation!

Our exhibition and workshop is a commemoration and a celebration of the strange children that are born of this marriage of cultures: seaweed on pizzas, avocado in sushi, KFC for Christmas, Japanese single malt whisky, American Teppanyaki! We salute you!

We invite the community to join us in the making of a giant tetrahedral kite. The kite will be decorated with pictures and writing similar to Ema. What is your wish? Will it fly? Gambate!

—Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro